In article <1991Nov8.161102.12830 at nrcnet0.nrc.ca>, num208jn at MBDS.NRC.CA (John Nash) writes:
> One downside: the cuvettes aren't cheap and are not really usable..
> from the top of my head, I think I pay something like $Cdn 2.50 -
> $2.80 /cuvette. Also, I find that one or two per box arc, which makes
> a loud noise and scares the $%^& out of me for a few minutes.
>
Our experience is similar to John Nash's (gidday John), although our
transformation frequencies are usually slightly lower.
However we have found that the cuvettes can be reused - after use
we wash several times in water, then soak in 70% ethanol for say
an hour, then rinse a few times with __sterile__ distilled water
as aseptically as possible, then dry/sterilize in the 80 deg.C
oven several hours (usually overnight). Both the cuvettes and the lids are
done together this way and lids are replaced on the cuvettes immediately
on removal from the oven to reduce chances of contamination.
We have never had any problems yet - but have probably only reused
cuvettes so far up to say 3 times (they are still ok).
If doing something really critical we tend to opt to use new cuvettes
but so far have not observed there to be any difference between
old and new. If a cuvette pops, we throw it away so it doesn't
pop up again in the next experiment. Cheers, Paul Fisher.